Deer Lodge, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Deer Lodge, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Deer Lodge lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Deer Lodge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deer Lodge — the short answer
Deer Lodge, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 123 days between hard freezes, across 993 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~123
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 993 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4b is Deer Lodge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deer Lodge's 123-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deer Lodge
Each reading below is measured for Deer Lodge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeer Lodge runs about 123 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDeer Lodge sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Deer Lodge is in
Deer Lodge sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Deer Lodge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Powell County.
What Grows in Deer Lodge
Every plant below cleared Deer Lodge's own zone 4b and its 123-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deer Lodge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Deer Lodge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deer Lodge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GOLD CREEK STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- MILWAUKEE RAILROAD YARDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- MDOT DEER LODGE MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- LOUISIANA PACIFIC CORP DEER LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DEER LODGE OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- US POSTAL SERVICE DEER LODGEBrownfields · 600 ft
- CHEVRON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MAIN STREET SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CITY OF DEER LODGE USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BPOE LODGE 1737Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- JEWELL FUNERAL HOME INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- HOMETOWN MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deer Lodge's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Deer Lodge.
Total Sites
303
within ~10 miles of Deer Lodge
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deer Lodge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deer Lodge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deer Lodge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Deer Lodge — Nitrate (206 sites) and Mining (42 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Deer Lodge
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Lodge average
Your land is one point inside Deer Lodge
Everything above resolves to Deer Lodge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 993 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Deer Lodge Average
Deer Lodge Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Deer Lodge
- ●One soil character for all of Deer Lodge
- ●Frost dates read at Deer Lodge's scale: May 18 to Sep 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deer Lodge's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deer Lodge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deer Lodge, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deer Lodge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deer Lodge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Lodge average
How we know this about Deer Lodge
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Deer Lodge’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Deer Lodge
When does frost risk typically end in Deer Lodge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Lodge typically lands around May 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Jun 8.
When is the first frost in Deer Lodge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Lodge typically arrives around Sep 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 4, so the watching starts about Aug 19 — about 123 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deer Lodge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deer Lodge sees about 123 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Sep 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 4, about 88 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deer Lodge?
The federal record around Deer Lodge runs heavier than most — 303 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (206), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Deer Lodge?
With about 123 frost-free days between hard freezes, Deer Lodge rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 151 to 179 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Deer Lodge's scale — its 4b band and its 123-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deer Lodge's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Deer Lodge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deer Lodge's own scale — its own ~123-day season between 28°F freezes, the 993 acres it covers and 303 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deer Lodge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deer Lodge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Sep 18 and the ~123-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 303 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deer Lodge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deer Lodge's boundary and the 993 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~123-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deer Lodge's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deer Lodge's 993 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Powell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Powell County
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Powell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deer Lodge's 993 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deer Lodge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 993 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Deer Lodge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaDeer Lodge sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.